The following content is reposted with the written permission of Morgana Press.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO LIVE LIKE YOU'RE FROM NEW ORLEANS?

Want to love, laugh, hate, lust, cry, celebrate, pray, scheme, survive and mourn...beyond the watermark...for 40 days and nights down in New Orleans? Now you can, no matter where you are!

Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints delivers rapid-fire truths of the human condition sprung from the heart of an impulsive city. New Orleanians are known to face down life's bittersweet themes, discoveries, disappointments and timeless moral struggles with uncommon wisdom  lively, ironic, mischievous, unpredictable, serious.

Indeed, NOLA-land remains an enticingly uncommon republic of an intriguing people  a society of survivors, of kindred characters, flush with ripe thoughts and colorful viewpoints.

Now here comes irrepressible Bourbon Street resident TJ Fisher's big book of fetching French Quarterisms, an uncommon riddle of paradoxical and bittersweet rules, standards, lessons, ethics, sensibilities, eccentricities and philosophies to live by.

This work dares to confront the little voice inside, the secret one we all wrestle with but rarely speak aloud.

Hearsay from Heaven and Hades is a roller coaster ride of emotions, observations, commentary, advice and humor. The author's voice arises from post-disaster New Orleans, a town that will find you, draw you in and keep you  a place that conjures up a strange medley of passions and sentiments.

The 512-page book is naughty and nice, enchanting and earthy, charismatic and kooky; a guidebook of how to live and think like a New Orleanian  a provocative manual for those daring enough to embrace a potpourri of passions. A work to make you laugh, cry, cuss, dance and think...

A picaresque work for lovers of honest life and self-reflection, this work paints a kicky portrait of the human experience; snippets of what we think but rarely discuss.

This New Orleanian-style interpretation of the paradoxical practices, principles and philosophies of fearless freethinkers pries into the uncommon, memorable mindset of extraordinary lives lived on the edge.

For three centuries New Orleans has created and attracted original freewheeling characters, from pirates to politicians to poets. Emotions run high. Devotions go deep. Delusions flow thick. Danger lurks nearby. Thoughts are untamed. Sinners and saints celebrate and cohabitate as one. By comparison, everyplace else is bland.

If you have a mindset that is stormy, curious, questioning, defiant and capricious, and you like a little poison in your paradise  if you have been broken into a thousand ppieces at least once  this book is for you. Hearsay from Heaven and Hades voices the conflicted darkness and light of those who embrace life on the edge.

"[Fisher] You own the original Howdy Doody marionette ...You drive a pink Cadillac convertible ...You very much fit the mold."  BILL BAGWILL, WLAE-TV/PBS, host of A Greater New Orleans: The Road to Recovery

Around the world, many remain fascinated with the public face and private undercurrents of New Orleans, and the spirited-gumbo mindset of the "characters" that reside here. Hearsay from Heaven and Hades voices the outlook of imperfect humans who admit and relish the gusto of being flawed. A "hot type" antidote to an overage of saccharine books!

Fisher's lush torrent of "regionally flavored and marinated" thought-provoking insights  spicy "twisted" dispatches from vivid, wild, soulful Louisiana  need not be read in any particular sequence. Flip open a page, find a distinct message. Use the book as a mischievous parlor game.

Sketches of New Orleans imagery appear every 10 pages, complimenting Fisher's ripe exposé, of life lived. Enjoy the potent spice and drama of this unusually offbeat, dark-humored and lively read. Non-vanilla. Addictive. A rich treat to savor.

THE GATEWAY BETWEEN PARADISE AND PERDITION, TRUTH AND LIES, HAPPINESS AND MISERY IS DIVIDED BY BUT A HAIR’S BREATH

Hearsay from Heaven and Hades is an inventive, mischievous work meant for those who prefer a little poison in their paradise.

From the heart of life's "living room"  the historic French Quarter of New Orleans  comes a commanding, absorbing, sardonic-eyed and entertaining look at ever-so-elusive original "truths." Telltales your mother never told you.

A collection of dark and enchanted satire, musings and witticisms exposes a swatch in the psyche deeper than character studies or scenarios of right or wrong, good or bad, politics or peccadilloes.This book reveals that mother does not always know best.

The hush-hush subject matter sneakily slips behind the eyes, into the head, under the skin. From the hallowed halls of tycoons to the underbelly of pop-culture and flawed people living in the abyss, from beyond the revelry and merrymaking, the guises and disguises, herein lies a quirky shadow dance of quips; a dark-jewel slice of life.

Now comes a chronicle of contemplative and introspective prose written on water  a motley assortment of memorable pulp-truth rhapsodies, riddles, ridicules, treacheries and obsessions. This stylized depiction of French Quarter-style manners and morals is a witty inquiry into a "celebration" of a place straddling the precipice that lies just above and below sea level. New Orleans remains a tableau of time and vicissitudes.

Setting the slant and coloring each page is a loaded powder keg of quixotic 24-karat angel-devil dust. One thinks of a journal of the inner thoughts of cinematic characters  of paradoxical proverbs and provocative murmurings, of unscrupulous ideas, mutterings, sayings, ironies, warnings and regrets, of aspects overheard, stated, repeated, dreamed, promised, prophesized, lamented, of words written, rewritten, polished and sharpened over the years.

Fisher permeates the page with jagged-edged wit. With barbed black humor, sophistication and wisdom she gallivants through conscious and unconscious feelings, fears and personal knowledge, recapturing an awareness deeply buried yet simmering within the unfaithful and sly head, heart, body and soul.

BETWEEN REALISM AND IMAGINATION, AND BEHIND THE MASK, LITTLE IS CERTAIN

Here is a renaissance of what French Quarterites have embraced for three hundred years  an unvarnished carousel of life at once capricious, cruel, kind, entertaining, murky, dreamlike, dangerous, mysterious, mad, mocking, contradictory, absurd, otherworldly, farcical and allegorical.

This handbook is for anyone with a yen to be a saint, sinner, survivor, winner, loser, pathbreaker, tastemaker, rebel, renegade, maverick, rogue, rabble-rouser, nonconformist, malcontent, misfit, visionary, hero, coward, pirate, prophet or philosopher ― that is, for those seeking to explore and fan the flames, the ecstasy and agony, of the human existence.

LOOSEN THE SENSES, SHARPEN THE MIND, TASTE THE SHREDDED-CONFETTI OF ETHOS, MYTHOS AND PATHOS

This book represents the eccentric attitudes and outlandish stances, the odd outlooks and mindsets, the ecclesiastic oddities and esoteric philosophies indigenous to New Orleans. This spirited and secretive city embodies an age-old melding of unique cultures and theologies ― misty elegances and decadences ― distinct viewpoints that dispute the normal rules and constraints of logic.

Beyond polite society's bland commonplace affirmations and self-help gurus, Hearsay from Heaven and Hades struts onto the scene with a kaleidoscope burst...as a modern-day "illuminati" manual for those willing to embrace nuggets of unmasked and original thinking.

Satirical and sardonic yet oozing with private pockets of quirky black-humor realism, this docudrama-journal of French Quarter nonfiction aims warped wit at the irresistible sweet misery between cradle and coffin.

The path linking New Orleans' cathedrals to her crypts is lined with the vapory secrets of saints and sinners; shifting lives in a pendulum of holy and unholy ruin and recovery, of heartbreak and joy, despair and bliss, anguish and euphoria. In this laughter-and-tear-soaked city of stains and scars, amid the customs, rituals, fires, ashes and waters of time, who is to say what is what, which is which? Come take the journey.

AN EXQUISITE PORTRAYAL OF WHAT WISE MEN, MADMEN AND FOOLS NEED TO KNOW

WHY IS THIS BOOK AND "VOICE" BORN OF THE FRENCH QUARTER?

The French Quarter has always been an intriguingly ripe Mecca, an historic convergence of writers and artistically creative individuals free to tilt off center with socially, politically, morally diverse viewpoints. New Orleans has always eagerly embraced a slanted-eyed logic guided by pleasure, pain, romance, lust, menace and fond illusion. Today, as yesterday, in the French Quarter it's OK to be flamboyant and flawed. Unquiet minds are welcome. So are stargazers, and those with a stormy heart, soul, spirit and emotion; people who live head-on with fantasy and reality, illusion and truth, merging and layering themselves into a strangely compelling, comforting, profound place.

In the Crescent City ancient culture, myth and strange serendipity abound and intertwine.

Beyond the faded walls and day-to-day struggles, New Orleanians strive to live and explore life, to embrace the celebration of triumph over sorrow. Taboos are few. Mirth and merriment prevail, trumping sadness. Decadence and elegance meld. Rejoicing takes hold alongside mourning. Hardships are many.

The local French Quarterite can be outrageous and eccentric, a total over-the-top character yet totally secretive, hidden in the murk and shadows beneath the cloak of anonymity. Whether born here or transplanted, New Orleanians instinctually understand that the age-old ironies of agonies and ecstasies, of adversity and parading, go hand-in-hand. Most find this unfettered, rebellious attitude uniquely fascinating and attractive, provocative and seductive, dangerous and intoxicating, inspiring and primal, irreverent and idiosyncratic, cloistered and oxymoronic.

French Quarterites eat, drink, laugh and live with abandon in the temperamental moment yet remain firmly wedded to the specters of yesterday. It's OK to joyfully and stubbornly parade in streets, dance and sing, have a conversation or shed a tear with ancestors who sleep in the Cities of the Dead.

Something vividly powerful persists in a crumbling city with a battered and bruised soul. In Louisiana the Patricians are free to sup with the sinners and saints of Bourbon Street. New Orleans, an historic locale and artistically fertile mix of stimulation with isolation is where you investigate the dark edges, dramas and complexities of life.

Once you've lived this lifestyle and partaken of the odd, collective consciousness shared with scandalous and sassy people, it's impossible to relinquish the confections, concoctions, incarnations and incantations of New Orleans; few can do so, as Lafcadio Hearn said in 1876, without regret. The Crescent City, immersed in mystique, legend and sentiment, has a strange soul embedded in the sodden soil that can never be erased, removed or stripped away; that soul seeps into us, clings to us, and we carry it everywhere. Old stories and echoes are remembered and relived.

Once you drink from the fountain of the Vieux Carré it is impossible to willingly leave the strange connection of camaraderie that permeates the French Quarter; souls huddled as though in a drawing room of contrasts and the unexpected and always at the edge of the abyss.

Those who know what it means to love and miss New Orleans blossom amid the outlandish, appreciate the crazy mix of pirates, rogues, renegades, misfits, rebels, hooligans, malcontents, mavericks, explorers, searchers, seekers, heroes and anti-heroes. It is difficult for others to fathom what the Great American City of New Orleans has been through, for three centuries on up to Katrina, yet people love her still, even in her darkest hours of devastation and tragedy and beyond.

There is no place, anywhere, like New Orleans, and never will be. The enlightenments of Katrina, along with the passions and truths laid bare, compel writers to unlock themselves and to open up as storytellers and poets unwittingly transcended to a new level; able to touch and move people, to affect and take effect. The ongoing strength and memories of the people, places, stories, voices and visions of New Orleans make people feel, cry, dream, laugh, reminisce, cuss, question  and live.

Another celebration of the greatest city in America as only Fisher could write it. Hearsay from Heaven and Hades is a grasping for light in lightless New Orleans nights, a voice in a time of frightening silence, clarity in a time of chaos."  JOSHUA CLARK, author of Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in Its Disaster Zone (National Book Critics Circle Finalist) and editor of Louisiana in Words and French Quarter Fiction

Hearsay from Heaven and Hades' thought-provoking insights for living the human drama are compelling and smack of genius. Kudos to Ms. Fisher for an enormous task that is well written and worthy of her Benjamin Franklin Award for "Best New Voice Nonfiction."  CATHERINE LANIGAN, author of Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile, Divine Nudges, Angel Watch, Wings of Destiny and 25 additional fiction and nonfiction books

"Some of these aphorisms are charming, and some may even be profound."  ANDREI CODRESCU, poet, novelist, columnist and essayist, author of Wakefield and New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writing from the City

"A magnificent journey into the delicious realms of unknown New Orleans. Fisher exposes the secrets of this complex city and lures us into the provocative world ... which is New Orleans ... Hearsay from Heaven and Hades is a must read for any serious lover of superb writing."  DR. ROSARY O'NEILL, acclaimed author of The Actors Checklist and award-winning playwright of internationally celebrated works that often center on the rich and colorful classic cultural "characters" of New Orleans and LouisianaO'Neill's plays include: The Awakening of Kate Chopin, Blackjack: The Thief of Possession, Degas in New Orleans, A Louisiana Gentleman, Solitaire, Wishing Aces, Uncle Victor, White Suits in Summer, Property, Turtle Soup, The Wing of Madness, Beckett at Greystone Bay, John Singer Sargeant and Madame X. She served as founding artistic director of NOLA's Southern Repertory Theater.

Author TJ Fisher's Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints title sits in the front window of Blue Cypress Books, Oak Street, New Orleans, 2015.

"Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints, by the inimitable TJ Fisher, is a book to dip into for inspiration, laughs and genuine folk wisdom. Full of one-liners and ageless proverbs, nonsense and common sense, Hearsay is a feast for the senses and the soul. As feisty and unforgettable as its author, this is a book you'll return to time and again."  DARLYN FINCH, poet and author of Red Wax Rose, previous writer-in-residence at the Kerouac House

"TJ Fisher's Hearsay from Heaven and Hades is a cogent, sparkling tour de force of wit, wisdom and  most importantly  love. Her sense of what makes the French Quarter such a maddening, but endearing, magnet for creative souls is priceless ... very thought-provoking... FANTASTIC!"  CHRISTIAN ALLMAN is the publisher of GRIS GRIS ROUGE MAGAZINE; he has also served as a contributing writer and editor of THE FACE OF NEW ORLEANS TRIBUNE and THE TREME VOICE

"The Western World has its match for Confucius in TJ Fisher and her new book. Superb literary anecdotes and allusions, bristling with wisdom, surprisingly turned with wit and creativity, beam gems of thought. And who among us doesn't inwardly admit that we are both saints and sinners at the same time, 'perfectly imperfect?' ... TJ Fisher knows that ... and she says it well. Fresh and sassy ... enlightening words transport me right back to New Orleans again ... tremendous vocabulary ... and well jumbled!"  BISHOP JAMES H. BURCH, The Catholic Diocese of One Spirit

"A magnum opus of intriguing 'truths.' Thought-provoking ... a kick, a caress, a slow burn, felt deep within the belly and heart. Be prepared to want to laugh, cry, dance and think."  from one of the nation's leading librarians

"TJ Fisher magnificently captures the heart and soul of New Orleans in her newest work, Hearsay from Heaven and Hades. It not only draws us in, but keeps us captivated through her keen insights that are both funny and heartwarming, enlightening!"  JEFF RECTOR, award-winning actor/writer/director/producer

"TJ Fisher has pulled together a delicious concoction of random thoughts which occurred to her over the forty days and forty nights of Katrina and her devastating aftermath, random thoughts which together sum up all that is precious about New Orleans and her people, when they are being very, very good and when they are being very, very bad. With the devotion of a lover and the keen insight and clarity of vision of one who came by choice and stays in spite of all, New Orleans is brought to life in bits and pieces that compose in the end the entirety of this jewel of a city. I plan to buy Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints for all of my friends in other places so that they will understand why, once we come, we do not leave." ROSEMARY JAMES, Co-Founder, Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society and editor of My New Orleans: Ballads to the Big Easy by Her Sons, Daughters, and Lovers"A totally unique book, filled with what she [TJ Fisher] calls 'French Quarterisms', a large collection of aphorisms that permits the reader to flip open to any page and delight, ranging from 'The greatest instinct is survival' to 'Rarely is one mistake fatal in itself.' This is the kind of book you give to a young reader to stimulate their mind or a friend, a loved one, because it is a gift of love as well as life. The collection of thoughts that fill every page evokes the special spirit of life in the city where you can find a grand cathedral and a shop selling voodoo charms."  AL CARUBA, BOOKVIEWS

"TJ Fisher's Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints, a book illustrating the emotional unrest felt during the days following Katrina."  SUZANNE PFEFFERLE, WHERE Y'AT

"A poetic examination of 40 days and nights within the Vieux Carré ... Fisher's musings of life in New Orleans, from the juxtaposition of good and evil, decline and revival and the balance of catastrophe and beauty ... pieces of wisdom."  CHERÉ COEN, THE DAILY ADVERTISER

"Shelf life: What's new at the bookstores? Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints by TJ Fisher."  MIMI DIAMOND, ASBURY PARK PRESS"Since childhood, she has found creative inspiration in all facets of New Orleans and its rich lifestyle. A post-Katrina 'breakout' voice of resonance."  LA FETE NEWS

"TJ reminds me of an old Gaelic song that has 20 verses, each one of them different and significant. Like the song, TJ will keep you spellbound all through the night."
— DANNY O'FLAHERTY, Celtic balladeer

PUBLISHER'S NOTE (Morgana Press of New Orleans)

Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints is a somewhat darkly insightful "motivational" book based on the underside of the human psyche and overlaid with a spread of Southern eccentricities as it applies to pop-culture. Unique and absorbing, cerebral and contemplative, this is the sardonic-eyed version of life's original and twisted "truths" that we call French Quarterisms.

Hearsay from Heaven and Hades' folklorish wit, words and wisdom are reflective of the conscious and unconscious feelings, fears and personal knowledge that already lie buried deep within a person's head, heart, body and soul  unfortunately or fortunately, oftentimes these are things that have been learned, experienced, suffered and endured the hard way, first-hand.

The book's passages give a voice and credence to that impossible-to-silence "little voice" that lurks inside all of us! It is what we might say to ourselves, friends and family in private and secret moments but what we rarely say in public, much less put into ink.

Coincidentally, the book is not meant to be "new age" style; no, not at all. The origins of the book's ironic and oxymoronic thoughts go much further and far deeper, in fact, all the way back to ancient times and early civilizations  with roots tracing back to the beginnings of Greek and Roman mythology, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, and continuing on in such works as those of Shakespeare and Carl Jung, and in the colorful characters of the South. The eccentric allure of Southern philosophy is like none other.

This work is for people looking to understand, perhaps even validate, the joys and agonies of life and the human condition. In this self-introspective time, people are longing and searching for meaning, ancient answers, self-help gurus or even surreal "characters" and teachings with which to identify. Times of trial and tribulation, even peril and torment, are never easy. Although not intended as "touchy-feel-good," the work, almost lyrical in nature, addresses our deep-seated attraction to embrace the universal mystique and mysteries of danger; it explores our varying degrees of fascination with darkness, pain, suffering and evil. Indeed, many of society's murky preoccupations are revealed through our culture's most popular films, movies, music, vices and social commentaries.

New Orleans remains a lush locale for exploring people's "character" and motivation, their background and back-story, for a subtle portrayal of how people really think, feel, act and react, and why. The French Quarter continues to be a cauldron for mining proverbs and ironies that address the ways of a seemingly turbulent, chaotic, paradoxical and unjust world that can also be magical, mythical, mysterious.

The public is forever fascinated with the purported light and dark of life, death, resurrection and survival, especially in enchanted New Orleans with its satire, its resiliency, its spunky people, its age-old secrets.

Soulful, dark-edged aphorisms told with a post-Katrina spirit of honesty, a duality and dichotomy, Hearsay from Heaven and Hades flouts unorthodoxy, turmoil and conflict.Like New Orleans itself, readers will immediately love or hate it, "get it" or not, with no in-between!

Often, we think what the author says, but never admit it. The narrative gives insight and credence to the people who live here, unscripted and imperfect. Blurring the line between tragedy and comedy, revenge and humor, forgiveness and anger, the book is meant to be a symbolic work of the collective consciousness of New Orleans "personified".

"Feast of wisdom ... TJ Fisher calls Hearsay from Heaven and Hades, the follow-up to her award-winning Orléans Embrace, a sardonic handbook. But Fisher, whose vocabulary matches her boundless spirit, has put as much Joie de vivre into Hearsay as irreverence and derision. The Belle of Bourbon Street has framed her compendium of anecdotes and aphorisms in 40 chapters, titled 40 Days and 40 Nights. As with Orléans Embrace, the author is ever busy resurrecting the spirit and soul of a great city. Neither Rome nor New Orleans was built in a day and Hearsay from Heaven and Hades is to be savored in more than one or two sittings. In these 'sayings for unquiet minds,' emotions take every shade, but the overarching theme is Fisher's post-Katrina mantra. It resonates in such passages as 'Life revolving, ebbing and flowing, outlives catastrophe' and 'a rotating pendulum of holy and unholy ruin.' Fisher, last year's winner of the Ben Franklin Award for Best New Voice, speaks out again as the Orléans mender of broken dreams."  GARTH PUCKETT, Starred Amazon Reviewer

The 'Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints' Morgana Press biography on author TJ Fisher is as follows, courtesy of Morganapress.com.

TJ Fisher is the award-winning author of the 'Orléans Embrace' narrative portion of the recently published 388-page commemorative edition on the historic French Quarter of New Orleans: 'Orléans Embrace with The Secret Gardens of the Vieux Carré,' the highly acclaimed book is a hauntingly beautiful, potent memoir of an unforgettable city.

Flamboyant French Quarterite Fisher is a talented, unconventional writer of many moods who always follows her own rules. The distinctive New Orleanian psyche affects all of her works. Known to be profoundly idiosyncratic and quirky, murky and moody, light and dark, she is equally gifted at nonfiction and fiction. An insightful, astute chronicler of people, places, time and things, her compelling prose rarely fails to evoke, if not provoke; profoundly curious and creative, she has been studying, writing and developing character profiles since childhood.

Fisher's patchwork personal life and work as a writer, filmmaker, actor and more add heightened focus to her original perceptions of intriguing human dramas, behaviors, deceptions, philosophies and psychologies. Her own merry-go-round of skewed galas and griefs, triumphs and tribulations, joys and sorrows, secrets and shambles, and baptisms by fire and water have shaped her resonate "voice" and paradoxical viewpoints.

Through the mercurial heart and eyes of a mutinous pirate poet, the spirited words of the centuries startle the reader with bold, engaging prose; she takes aim as a thought-provoking flame and spear thrower giving wings to fresh thought. Time spent in Haiti and post-Katrina New Orleans has colored and deepened her thoughts more than any other lifetime event.

Fisher is a longtime member of Writers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, Dramatists Guild, Academy of Television and Arts and Sciences, Screen Actors Guild and Actors' Equity Association, and other professional guilds and organizations.

'Hearsay From Heaven and Hades: Secrets of Sinners and Saints' is a captivating collection of Fisher's most provocative thoughts and deepest familiarities, assembled over a decade; sayings melded in the Vieux Carré, the Historic French Quarter of New Orleans, also loosely known as "America's last Bohemia."